Wednesday 22nd october 2008
Marc Guillemot, from multihulls to monohulls
The skipper of Safran will be setting sail on his first Vendée Globe on 9th November. Up until now, he has spent most of his career sailing multihulls. Returning to monohulls on one of the top performing boats in the IMOCA fleet, may well propel him towards the summit. His career at a glance.
Until recently, the last races that Marc Guillemot took part in on a monohull dated back to the crewed round the world races in 1989 and 1994, the famous Whitbread races! It may therefore be somewhat surprising to see that at the age of 49, this is his first Vendée Globe. That would be probably because we forgot that Marc Guillemot had a lot of experience on giant multihulls, after a childhood in Brittany spent sailing a Vaurien around Bénodet with Bertrand de Broc and the Poupon brothers. At the age of 15, Marc went on his first delivery trips and took part in the famous English RORC races. He was not yet an adult, when he went through the terrifying Fastnet storm of 1979.
From the Jet Services adventure.
In the 1981 Twostar, in which he won class honours, he met Nigel Irens and Patrick Morvan. This was to be a decisive meeting: together they went on to build Jet Services II. Marc Guillemot had caught the multihull bug. which was to stay with him for a long time! The trio that he formed with Jean Le Cam and Serge Madec achieved record after record, such as the famous Atlantic crossing record in 1984: 8 days and 16 hours. However, in 1985, Jet Services IV capsized, and Marc and Patrick Morvan were seriously injured, when Jean Castenet was lost. Following two years of physical therapy, Guillemot returned to racing, achieving more wins and podium places, as well as smashing the Atlantic record once again with a time of 7 days and 6 hours on Jet Services V. This was to be followed by the «La Trinitaine» years, when Marc raced aboard the 60' trimaran, finishing twice as runner-up in the 2000 Europe 1 Star 2000 and the Route du Rhum, among other honours.
. to the start of the 2008/2009 Vendée Globe
Now it is back to monohulls with a winning project for the Vendée Globe. His partner, SAFRAN entrusted the design of the boat to two teams of famous architects: VPLP and Guillaume Verdier, and the construction was carried out in Thierry Eluère's Larros boatyard. The top craftsmen in the field.
Marc Guillemot and Safran have already achieved three fine successes this season: 2nd in the Transat Jacques Vabre, 5th in the Transat Ecover B to B and 4th in the Artemis Transat. These results merely confirm the extent of his talent and make him one of the favourites in this year's Vendée Globe.
SAFRAN
Jocelyne Terrien
Tél : 01 40 60 80 28
Fax : 01 40 60 80 26
jocelyne.terrien@safran.fr
SAFRAN is an international hi-tech group specialising in four areas: aeronautics and space propulsion, aeronautical equipment, defence and security, and communications. The Group employs 63,000 people in more than 30 countries and has a turnover of 11 billion euros. Including many prestigious companies, SAFRAN ranks, alone or in partnerships, as one of the world and European leaders in the field.
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